June 11, 2010 - Sharing pornography has been commonplace in the offices and staff rooms of Virgin Blue Airlines for years, a group of workers sacked by the airline claimed. And they say that, far from objecting to the practice, airline management openly condoned it.

At least five of the more than 25 Virgin Blue workers, sacked as part of a companywide crackdown on pornography, are set to challenge the terminations in court as unfair dismissals.

Virgin Blue is an Australian low-cost airline, Australia's second-largest airline as well as the largest by fleet size to utilize the Virgin brand. The airline serves 28 cities and towns in Australia, with Brisbane Airport as its hub, using a fleet of 75 narrow-body Boeings and Embraers.

Virgin Blue says that each of the sacked staff members received a warning prior to being dismissed, which they chose to ignore. But the Transport Workers Union, which is representing the workers, says in many cases this warning was made after the alleged breaches took place, and that workers ceased their pornography-swapping practices once it was received.

"The change in policy should not be made retrospectively when the company in the past has condoned encouraged this culture through management," TWU national secretary Tony Sheldon said. "Virgin should have proper training regarding inappropriate offensive material, starting with Richard Branson, the editor of the in-flight magazine Voyeur, and the entire staff and management.

"It is understood Virgin is undertaking a company-wide investigation into pornography use, with everyone from engineers to cabin crew having their computers scanned by high-tech computer programs that email inboxes for skin-toned images. A Virgin Blue spokeswoman said the airline would "defend our actions vigorously".